Hello Jarrod, Just wanted to say thanks for bringing SuSE Pro to the meeting last night. An excellent meeting by the way. I've only attended two meetings, but I always come away with more than I bring. Naturally I signed up for tier two membership!
Doug ----- Original Message ----- From: Jarrod Major <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Monday, January 5, 2004 2:08 pm Subject: Re: [clug-talk] Most popular flavour of linux > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Excellent job on answering this question Niels! > > I would add my two cents that if you are planning on using Linux > in a desktop > environment that you should consider purchasing a hard drive > caddy. They are > fairly inexpensive ($20 from Memory Express is the starting price > I believe) > and easy to set up. Hard drives are pretty cheap too. This saves > you the > bother of buying a dedicated system to try out Linux. > > Here are my pros and cons: > > Pros are: > 1) each OS is completely segregated > 2) no need to repartition > 3) your existing system is not at any risk > 4) you now have the ability to try as many distros as you have > hard drives > for, it's very liberating > 5) if you have a high zoot system, you get to take advantage of that > 6) if you have a secondary hard drive you can use it under Linux > as well as > Linux supports many different filesystems, making it possible to > share files > between one OS and another. > > Cons are: > > 1) have to reboot for whichever OS you want > 2) have to have dedicated hard drives > 3) your (caddy'd) hard drive may run hotter because of the more > confined > enclosure > > The point I am really trying to make is that most of us have a > decent computer > and with very little cost you can have the best of both worlds. If > you are > delving into Linux on the desktop for the first time, I would not > recommend > repartitioning as it is too scary if something goes wrong. People > do not back > their stuff up and then look for someone to blame when something > does go > wrong. Due diligence is the key. > > The other side of the coin is using that old Pentium 90 that is > currently > serving as a doorstop. You would be tempted to try this system out > and while > you are likely to get a workable system (and I would reiterate > Niels > questions as to what you are after in the end), if you want a > decent DESKTOP > system you should allot the same resources as you are currently > working in to > make a fair comparison. Besides seeing Linux run under a blazing > fast system > only shows more of its potential and just how flawed other OS's are. > > People cannot help comparing one OS to another in this situation > and my > opinion is if you use the SAME system (with a different hard > drive) you get > the most even playing field to make that comparison. > > Sorry, my bit was long-winded too. Couldn't be helped though there > are > definite 'right' ways of doing this. One shouldn't just jump unto > the game > without doing research first... which is how this thread started > in the first > place. > > Jarrod > > P.S. Please don't forget that CLUG maintains a distribution > library where > members may borrow/copy just about any distribution their heart > desires. We > are in the middle of posting a current list on the new website, > sorry for the > delay. > P.P.S. Support our sponsor Nexus and purchase a boxed set from > them. Manuals > can be very helpful to the new user and both SuSE and Mandrake > have excellent > documentation in their packages. > > On Monday 05 January 2004 1:15 pm, Niels Voll wrote: > > Hi Doug, > > > > Many of the other answers you have gotten to your question touch > upon> pertinent points. Here are my 2 cents: > > > > There are several high level forks in the road, all centered around > > various flavors of the question, what you would like to do. And > that is > > a bit of a multi-dimensional question. Some of those dimensions > include:> > > A: Server Side > > vs. Desktop Side > > > > B: do you like utmost control over your environment and are > capably of > > some pretty hardcore technical work > > vs. do you just want to plug it in and have it working > > vs. somewhere in between > > > > C do you have a "spare" (or semi-spare) computer where you can > > experiment over the longer haul > > vs. you have one computer, it has to do it' > s"production" job, > > and you need to keep your experiments very low risk > > (i.e. don't impact your primary environment) > > > > There are more considerations, but the above 3 (at least for me) are > > some of the more important one's. Let me start with the easiest one > > (point C): > > If you need to keep your Linux experiments at zero risk (i.e. > you can't > > afford to screw up the one and only computer you have), use a > bootable> CD based distribution to get your feet wet. My current > favorite: knoppix > > - http://www.knoppix.org/ > > > > If you are a pretty hardcore techie (point B), who would like to > have> ultimate control, and you are game to face a reasonably > steep learning > > curve (steeper for Windows or Mac users and administrators(yes!) > - not > > too steep for experienced Unix system administrators), then look at > > Debian or possibly even better, look at Gentoo (source based > > distribution - quite cool indeed!). In this case it doesn't > matter all > > that much, if you are more interested in a server or a desktop > environment.> > > If both of the above paragraphs don't apply to you, it comes > down to the > > questions in point A: > > > > If you are more interested in running a server environment, like > a web > > server (Apache), maybe email (sendmail, qmail, postfix, etc.), > maybe a > > database (MySql, Postgres, etc), and some server side programming > > environments (PHP, Python, Perl, etc...), then my current > favorites (in > > order) are: RedHat9/Fedora1, Mandrake, SuSE; Since so many > people run > > RedHat based servers, it is just easier to find instructions, > howto's> and general help for RedHat based systems. > > > > If you are more interested in a desktop environment, my current > > favorites are SuSE, followed by a tie between Mandrake and > Fedora. I've > > found the SuSE (my last experience is with SuSE 8) desktop based > > administration and utilities a bit richer than the others I had > tried.> The online updates worked well for me, too, and I didn't > even have to go > > through a signup procedure. That being said, Fedora's online > updates are > > very slick, too (and no signup required). Of course, SuSE is a bit > > tougher to get for free. > > > > One point of experience: I've found, that if using rather new/fancy > > hardware, then RedHat and SuSE are currently still the best > supported.> For example, I have recently set up a machine with a > SATA / RAID capable > > motherboard, and I found drivers for some versions of RedHat and > SuSE - > > everything else became quite difficult or even impossible. On older > > hardware, RedHat/Fedora, SuSE and Mandrake have all been very > good to > > me over the last couple of years. > > > > Disclaimer: These are my current opinions, since I had to decide > this> very question for myself about 3 months ago. Just in case > you are > > curious: I am NOT totally hardcore techie (prefer working with > > precompiled packages), I had spare/new computer(s), and I wanted to > > learn/build a server environment. As a result, I ended up on > RedHat 9 > > (because of available SATA/RAID hardware drivers), gently migrating > > toward Fedora. > > > > Sorry about the lengthy post, > > > > ...Niels > > > > Doug Boyd wrote: > > > Hello, > > > > > > I'm new to the linux arena. I'm curious if a survey has been > done to > > > determine the most popular flavour of linux among the Calgary > Linux> > Users Group. I'm currently using Fedora, but am thinking > of giving > > > SUSE a try. > > > Which flavour do Cluggers recommend for learning linux with? > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > Doug (linux newbie) > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > clug-talk mailing list > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > > > _______________________________________________ > > clug-talk mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > - -- > Jarrod Major > GPG Fingerprint: FA4A 1EA3 A0EE A842 07BB 804C 0090 14F6 BE6E DE3D > Registered Linux User: #224211 > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (GNU/Linux) > > iQCVAwUBP/nSTgCQFPa+bt49AQKKTQP+O5Zw0NaA+YNvr7p0RZm7SJX3AgH8cKkL > xUJ7LgbWuF+bmgI8QBKk4fbxR8WQuhQ4Izat36Aj+uVrXvdJgalpfCoBr4YHc8Fx > Coee4VAyjA/05dOkDK1MV7VguUC/hjVNN9KZh4e6y+FScwtBeWxT7t5fuZi77Oa0 > 1ACIdX8EoOc= > =uKbK > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca
